A Polyamidoamine Dendrimer-Based Electrochemical Immunosensor for Label-Free Determination of Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule- Expressing Cancer Cells

Abstract

A new electrochemical immunosensor for cancer cell detection based on a specific interaction between the metastasis-related antigen of epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) on the cell membrane and its monoclonal antibody (Anti-EpCAM) immobilized on a gold electrode has been developed. The amino-terminated polyamidoamine dendrimer (G6 PAMAM) was first covalently attached to the 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA)-functionalized gold electrode to obtain a thin film, and then completely carboxylated by succinic anhydride (SA). Next, the Anti-EpCAM was covalently bound with the G6 PAMAM to obtain a stable recognition layer. In the presence of the EpCAM expressing hepatocellular carcinomas cell line of HepG2, the specific immune recognition (Anti-EpCAM/EpCAM) led to an obvious change of the electron transfer ability. The properties of the layer-by-layer assembly process was examined by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The final determination of HepG2 cells was performed in the presence of the reversible [Fe(CN)6]3−/4− redox couple using impedance technique. Based on the advantages of PAMAM nanomaterial and immune reaction, a linear response to HepG2 cells ranging from 1 × 104 to 1 × 106 cells mL−1 with a calculated detection limit of 2.1 × 103 cells mL−1 was obtained. We expect this method can provide a potential tool for cancer cell monitoring and protein expression analysis.